Small towns and cities in Texas are also prospering

Texas Public Policy Foundation:
What to know: A New York Times piece claims the Texas Miracle economy has bypassed small towns like Longview.

The TPPF Take: Longview disagrees.

“This isn’t a town in decline; it’s a city on the move, with 3.8 percent unemployment and record-high home sales and home values,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “The Texas Model works — even for rural Texans. In a diverse economy, not all gains will be felt uniformly. But a rising tide does, indeed, lift all boats.”
Longview is in East Texas and was near the old East Texas oil boom.  It is in the Piney Woods and is doing OK.   The city of Brenham and the city of Navasota are near where I live in rural Washington County and both are prospering.  Brenham has a diverse industrial base with factories making things from clothes hangers to pipe and mattresses.  It is the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream and an insurance company.  Navasota also has manufacturing plants to complement its retail presence.  Both communities are seeing a building boom in housing.

The Times clearly is flummoxed by the success of the Texas model.  It prefers the high tax and high regulation model of California and New York which is causing people who can to flee those states.  The biggest challenge that Texas faces right now would come from people fleeing those states voting for Democrats who cause their problems, to begin with.

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